One of my writing students has an interesting, often amusing relationship with his mother. In an essay once on alternative perceptions he described how his mother had the hots for a sadistic dentist which she insisted on sending him to.
Last week, I asked the class to write a biography on someone they admired.
This was his effort:
My mother isn’t famous, but the reason why I write about her is her personality. She has a lot of personality quite different from other mothers.
Surprisingly, she doesn’t know how to use a computer. Computers might be all over the world, but once she didn’t know how to turn the computer off, so she just pulled out the power line. Also, she hates me to use the computer, but when I’m watching TV, she doesn’t stop me (watching TV apparently is simple. You just turn it on and look at the images). And more seriously, it seems that she has no interest in learning how to use a computer.
There’s only one reason that I have lived with her for 15 years and that is her cooking. It isn’t delicious, but its very delicious to me for having lived with her for such a long time. Her food is eatable. You’d never think about this unusual part of her personality after knowing her other aspects. She will sometimes chat with her friends about cooking, and that gives her a chance to learn (an exception). But laziness is a part of her personality- she will lay on her bed and watch TV with a box of snacks next to her after cooking dinner.
The worst part of her personality is her stubborness. She never listens to others, especially my sisters and me. This kind of person will drive a car somewhere by instinct, although she is already lost, and never look at the map (in fact she can’t drive; that’s another example). Even worse, if you advise her when she’s in a bad mood, you’ll get punished. But when you advise her not to do something and if she does it and proves that you’re right, she’ll blame you that you didn’t tell her earlier. You must know her well to discover this part of her personality.
So this is some personality about my mother. To live with a stubborn, selfish person, who doesn’t know anything about computers for 15 years and not die ought to be listed in the Guinness World Records.
